Labor Department, U.S.

News about Labor Department, U.S., including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 21, 2015

Editorial contends time for Obama administration and Labor Department to overhaul nation's outdated rules on overtime pay is running out, with February deadline for proposal having passed; says White House should strive to meet demands for threshold of at least $1,000 per week at which salaried workers cease to be eligible for overtime; warns that failure to act could result in no changes to law if Republican president is elected in 2016. MORE

Aug. 26, 2014

David Leonhardt The Upshot column cites new academic paper scrutinizing accuracy of Labor Department's monthly jobs report and its unemployment rate. MORE

Jun. 13, 2014

Financial industry is fiercely fighting a Labor Department proposal that would legally require more finance professionals to act in their customers’ best interest, even if they are advising them on their retirement money; department has postponed rule, which amends 1975 law governing when investment advisers become fiduciaries, until January. MORE

Jul. 19, 2013

Pres Obama's executive branch nominees continue to cruise through the Senate, including his controversial pick to be labor secretary--Thomas E Perez--as Republican anger over deal to avoid a weakening of the filibuster seeps into the open. MORE

May. 17, 2013

Threat of further Republican attempts to thwart Pres Obama's ability to assemble his second-term cabinet increases likelihood of fight over Senate's filibuster rules; nominations of Gina McCarthy as head of Environmental Protection Agency and Thomas E Perez as labor secretary received no Republican support and are expected to face GOP filibusters. MORE

May. 12, 2013

Pres Obama's latest cabinet-level nominees are running into deep resistance in Senate, pitching Democrats and Republicans into another tense standoff over White House appointments; Republicans have objected to nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead Environmental Protection Agency and have also sought to block labor secretary nominee Thomas E Perez on grounds that he is too political. MORE

Apr. 19, 2013

Thomas E Perez, Pres Obama’s choice to head Labor Department, defends his record and says that if confirmed, his focus will be on tackling nation’s high unemployment rate; Senate Republicans sharply criticize him for his work on housing discrimination and voting rights at Justice Dept. MORE

Mar. 19, 2013

Pres Obama appoints Thomas E Perez, who heads the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, to be his next labor secretary; some Senate Republicans call Perez a divisive choice. MORE

Mar. 18, 2013

Pres Obama plans to announce that he will nominate Thomas E Perez, his civil rights chief, to be next labor secretary, choice that promises to provoke debate with Republicans about voting rights and discrimination. MORE

Dec. 16, 2012

Gretchen Morgenson Fair Game column notes proposed Labor Department rule that would help participants in frozen 401(k) plans gain quicker access to their money; holds development is good news for former employees at Penn Specialty Chemicals, whose accounts were blocked after company went bankrupt. MORE

Nov. 15, 2012

Labor Department reaches settlement that recovers $213,000 in back wages for 1,028 foreign students who were summer employees in what many said were abusive conditions at a factory in Palmyra, Pa, that packed Hershey’s chocolates. MORE

Sep. 27, 2012

Governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut echo criticisms made by Mayor Michael R Bloomberg that climbing jobless figures released by the Labor Department do not accurately reflect improvements in their home states; focus of criticism is divergent results of two monthly federal surveys; unemployment rates are derived from a survey of households, while tally of jobs added and eliminated comes from a separate survey of employers. MORE

Mar. 22, 2012

Labor Department reaches a $3 million settlement with the ground delivery unit of FedEx to resolve allegations that the company discriminated against 21,635 job seekers at two dozen FedEx facilities in 15 states. MORE

Nov. 30, 2011

Labor Department moves to cut off federal contracts held by Cargill Meat Solutions, one of the nation's largest meatpackers, over discriminatory hiring practices at its Springdale, Arkansas, plant. MORE

Many employers are clueless about the fees they and their employees pay for operation of their 401(k) plans, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office finds. Understanding 401(k) fees is important, because they can make a big...

June 9, 2012, Saturday

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Even dying is being outsourced here. This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and...

7:57 p.m. | Updated The economic pie is growing, but the share going to American workers is at a record low. Friday's jobs report is expected to show that Americans are not on their way to getting a bigger cut. Much is at stake in the Labor...

February 3, 2012, Friday

The New York State Department of Labor has reached a $5.1 million settlement, its largest ever, with the chain Lenny's: The Ultimate Sandwich for minimum-wage and overtime violations, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday. The violations...

Even though New York City's stalled construction industry has not begun to hire back laid-off workers, the city's unemployment rate dipped again in April to its lowest level in more than two years. The city's official unemployment rate was 8.6...

December 4, 2010, Saturday

Inspectors from the New York State Department of Labor will visit Broadway's Foxwoods Theater on Wednesday to examine the flying and safety devices and watch some of the aerial stunts for the upcoming musical ''Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,'' which...